Economy's troubles still mounting

August 16, 2010 - Mike Maneval

Brett Arends, writing for the Wall Street Journal, lists 10 reasons why another stock market crash may be on the horizon. Among the most compelling reasons are joblessness, rising foreclosure rates and the level of debt at all levels of society - the debts of government at municipal, state and federal levels is well-known, and Arends notes the private sector, from households up to corporations, is swimming in red ink too.

One reason Arends does not include is the Hindenburg Omen. Steven Russolillo and Tomi Kilgore, also writing for the Wall Street Journal, note blind mathematician Jim Miekka's "Hindenburg Omen," a theory that when trades in stocks that were reaching either yearly high points in value or yearly low points in value both exceed 2.5 percent a crash is coming. Miekka, Russolillo and Kilgore report, says the theory indicates a market crash is approaching.

Along with economist Marshall Auerback's fears that the Federal Reserve is neglecting the role credit worthiness plays in lending - which I wrote about here a week and a half ago - and the strong possibility the real estate meltdown seen in housing will hit commercial real estate, with SmartMoney magazine's James B. Stewart writing that "the commercial market has emerged as a potentially greater threat" than residential real estate as 2009 drew to a close, the economy still faces serious obstacles - even as it continues to struggle with the obstacles brusquely encountered during the past three years.